The clamour around whether to bring Ken Clarke back seems to have led to some interesting manoeuvring behind Tory scenes.

It was suggested to Lobbydog that Clarke supporters were building up talk of a comeback that they knew wasn’t going to happen to provide cover for a return for David Davis – who will turn out to be the real comeback story.

Certainly grass roots Tories would be happier with a Davis return than a Clarke one, what with the European baggage.

But the whole idea that such a thing could be orchestrated between the two groups seems a bit silly.

More interesting was a story that appeared about shadow business secretary Alan Duncan in The Times today.

The piece said David Cameron had been embarrassed by Duncan nipping off on a ski trip when other shadow cabinet members were touring the country.

The shadow secretary is apparently being sniped at by “some parts” of the party.

Could it be those parts that want their man to have his business job in the next reshuffle?

It reads: "Care needs to be taken over the candidates that have the potential to embarrass the Party - there will now be a fortnightly meeting to assess the watch-list of candidates, and the reasons they are on the list needs to be taken into consideration."

"After the last thread on Ken Clarke’s possible return to a front-bench position it’s quite striking to note how many of the potential 2009 political betting 'movers' were all educated at the same school - Nottingham High."

Read the full piece complete with odds on how the High School boys will fare here.

Former pupils include Geoff Hoon, Ken Clarke, Ed Balls and Ed Davey - who is currently third favourite to succeed Nick Clegg as Lib Dem leader.

Graham Allen has a knack of turning any story going into one about "early intervention".

Drugs and crime problems? Early intervention. Rubbish school results? Early intervention. Not enough English players in the Premiership? Early... you get the picture.

The term means blitzing state intervention to young mums and children to try and break the cycle of deprivation.

His devotion to what is a good cause is admirable, but it means it was no surprise when he suggested to me earlier that the Government could tackle the economic downturn by investing in, you know what.

He wasn't holding his breath on it being in the next fiscal stimulus package though, so instead he's cooking up a way of paying for it for free.

The basic concept is this – early intervention would mean you save money in the future because you’re not spending on things like lowering teen pregnancy and crime etc.

So councils investing in such policies should be able to do so with money borrowed (that increasingly ugly word) against future savings – so technically no new money is needed.

The Nottingham North MP apparently has a group of top financiers (an even more ugly word) working on the detail.

It sounds risky and dubious to me, but I'd be intrigued to discover just how they think it will work.

A senior Lib Dem has caused lasting damage to the party’s nice-guy image after launching an unprovoked attack on helpless individuals – actually, perhaps ‘useless individuals’ would be a better description.

Transport spokesman Norman Baker, Hoon’s opposite number, was trying to peddle a story on how terrorism laws had been used to arrest trainspotters.

An interesting tale of sorts, but for no fathomable reason he suddenly said: “Trainspotting may be an activity of limited and indeed questionable appeal, but it is not a criminal offence and it is not a terrorist threat.”